When reflecting on our own lives, many would agree that each stage of life brought on new opportunities and challenges requiring us to adjust and adapt. For the most part, we experienced greater independence and a sense of accomplishment as we aged while inevitably facing numerous roadblocks and setbacks throughout. We continued to have a sense of a future ahead. Yet, at some point, this changed, whereby we saw fewer years ahead compared to what we had already lived. We started to feel a sense of ‘getting older’. Yet, what does this really mean? Ultimately, it’s not something that suddenly happened overnight, but a stage of life that crept up on us. However, there is one interesting exception to this experienced by some who decide to stop dyeing their hair and let their gray show. These people, based on society’s response, may have felt a sudden sense of feeling ‘older’.
Late adulthood begins in the mid-sixties and continues to death. Many people would describe getting older in terms of declining overall health and physical agility, changes in social roles, loss of friends and relatives as well as emotional and cognitive changes. As we age, our focus changes from building and accumulating to that of preservation and reflection. Overall, much of our coping and adaptation to aging requires a successful person-environment fit (Lawton, 1983). Specifically, Lawton theorized that the ‘physical and social environments and the person’s behavior are shaped by one another in a dynamic, ever-changing process’ (Crist, et al., 2019, 597). The important point is when we start to notice a challenge in coping with the environment in which we live. This is a critical time for when intervention may need to be implemented. This intervention can be in terms of, for example, where to live, the use of durable medical equipment, and social support.
The critical point of this article is that we recognize this new stage of life and the implications it has for us personally (in terms of ability to cope and adapt) as well as the impact on our family. Families’ roles as our future caregivers should be seen as an integral part of the intervention to ensure that we can continue to age in place safely and comfortably. Therefore, we must speak up and reach out to family when we start to notice aging-related challenges and initiate the discussion around planning for our long-term care. The sooner we start this conversation, the better we can implement a set-up that meets our wishes and needs.
In future articles, I will go into greater depth as to how we can best plan for our late adulthood. These will cover areas such as:
- Knowing when and how to reach out to family to ask for help
- Options and guides for choosing where to live
- Communicating and advocating your wishes to family
- Understanding the aging experience in terms of physical, social, and psychological dimensions
- Financial costs to consider regarding long-term care.
References
Crist, J., Lacasse, C., Phillips, L. & Liu, J. (2019). Lawton’s theory of person-environment fit: Theoretical foundations for detecting tipping points. Innovation in Aging, S597.
https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igz038.2218
Lawton, M.P. (1983). Environment and Other Determinants of Well-Being in Older People, The Gerontologist, 23(4), 349–357.